KEY POINTS
- The woman suffered severe injuries when she had to escape from attackers by jumping out of a moving Prasa train.
- Because Prasa did not uphold its responsibility to protect passenger safety the court made a decision against them.
- Prasa must pay the woman court-proven compensation for her costs of injury.
A woman received major injuries when she jumped to safety from a moving train as three attackers brandished knives and Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) became responsible for compensating her medical expenses.
Through its ruling the South Gauteng High Court established that Prasa was at fault for neglecting to create safe train travel conditions thus making it responsible for the injured woman.
Train attack leads to desperate escape
In February 2020 the 27-year-old passenger used train transport between Cape Town and Elsies Rivier. The court documents show that she got injuries from a skull fracture and shoulder and neck and back blunt force and a cerebral contusion when she fell out between Vasco and Goodwood stations.
The female plaintiff maintained that Prasa should be responsible for three negligence issues: their lack of security personnel deployment and train door maintenance and insufficient risk prevention actions. She related how she escaped from the train after seeing three people stab the nearby passenger.
Prasa’s defense rejected by court
Prasa defended itself against responsibility because the woman never paid to ride the train while she made an unsafe decision to jump off the carriage. The transportation agency held that the woman needed to take responsibility for her injuries because she displayed negligence through poor decision-making.
The Court rejected the defense arguments presented by Prasa because the agency remained legally responsible for the sustained injuries. The train passenger leaped from an active moving train through open doors because someone threatened to attack her with a knife. He declared that the court along with other judges questioned the logical foundation of holding people responsible for these situations.
According to established legal precedents in train-related injury cases Judge Bhoopchand determined that Prasa needed to maintain safety for passengers but proved to be negligent in their duty.
By court order the transportation agency will compensate the woman based on the losses that she proves before the court.
